2100 Morrison Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76112
(817) 451-3752
This is the church I went to yesterday that was housing the Seventh Day Adventist church. It is rumored to be the church that one of my former ministers is going to, and that my friend has an interview with. It's a Disciples of Christ church, so I pretty much new what to expect when I walked in the doors.
One thing I wasn't prepared for was how uncomfortable I felt. I don't know what was causing it, or if there was even a good reason for it, but I had the sense that something was wrong with the place from the very first moment I set foot over the threshold. It was a very strange feeling.
I showed up very early. I thought the drive would take longer than it did, so instead of the fifteen minutes I wanted to allow myself, I had twenty five. During that time I had a conversation with the guy that preached today (not the minister), and got the lowdown on the singles program.
There isn't a singles program. The church is very small despite the buildings they now inhabit. In fact I got the impression that the ministries were just starting up, and no one really had a good idea of what they were to be or how they would be organized. I was told that there were a few singles that attended the church, but that they were currently engaged in helping out with other ministries.
After the prolonged prologue, I slipped into the sanctuary for the service. The sanctuary is large. It could probably seat 500 if it needed to, although I only counted 58 bodies in the service. (This church offers a morning and a noon service--there may have been more at the early service.) The stage had chairs for a choir, one pulpit, an organ and a piano, the piano on the left of the stage, and the organ to the right. There were two projectors and screens, one each flanking either side of the stage. I found that interesting because in addition to the projectors, they also had traditional hymnals, Bibles, and bulletins. The rest of the facility is recently renovated. I got a distinct sense of pride in the buildings. I was offered a tour, but I declined.
The service was a typical DOC service. So typical that it could have been a carbon copy of the service of the church I left earlier this year. The songs were the same, the procedures for communion and the offering were the same, the format of the service was the same.
Two things were different about this service. First, it had a very thrown-together-at-the-last-minute flavor to it. There was no choir, no minister, and no associate minister. That's the second thing I noticed--no senior staff running the show. Mild astonishment was added to my unease.
The message was a standard good samaritan sermon. I got the message, but it wasn't at all hard to grasp. I didn't pay all that much attention once I followed the message, and only checked in occasionally when a particular point was made. At the end of the service was a standard altar call, but also something that I found creepy. Some lady from the office went up and joined hands with the guy who preached, they stepped forward, and another couple of people also got up and joined hands during the altar call. It was a little weird.
After the service I ejected as quickly as possible. This church is not on my revisit list for two reasons: first, I felt mighty uncomfortable there, and second, it had no thought for a singles program. So far APBC is the only church on my list of candidates for membership.
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